Early specialisation in elite sports impacts children and youth

A conference was recently held by the Department of Sport Science at Reykjavík University as part of the Reykjavík International Games in collaboration with the Icelandic Sports Association (ÍSÍ), the Icelandic Youth Association (UMFÍ), the Reykjavík Sports Association (ÍBR), Reykjavík University, and the Reykjavík Games.

The key focus was on early specialisation in elite sports among children and youth and its impact on young people. The conference addressed the latest research and emphasised the importance of maintaining a balance between competition and well-being in children’s and youth sports.

The conference was highly successful, and there is clearly a need to discuss this topic. It is important that everyone working within the sports movement remains aware of the need to maintain constructive, healthy sports programs for children and youth. At the Department of Sport Science at RU, we will continue to contribute to this effort, among other things, by keeping the discussion alive.

Says Dr Hafrún Kristjánsdóttir, Professor and Head of the Department of Sport Science, who co-chaired the conference with Hjördís Guðmundsdóttir.

Among the speakers was Dr Peter Donahue, Professor at the Department of Sport Science at Reykjavík University. In his presentation, he reviewed his research on sports participation in Iceland. The analysis is based on an extensive dataset covering 2003–2024 and comprising registration data from all sports clubs in Iceland. The data were provided by the company Abler through the registration systems of ÍSÍ and UMFÍ.

Dr Donahue’s findings show that children who try multiple sports between the ages of 10 and 15 are significantly more likely to remain active in sports as adolescents. Early specialisation, on the other hand, increases the likelihood of dropping out of sports. Additionally, the data revealed that participants who practised only one sport early in adolescence were more likely to quit sports altogether than even those who did not participate in any sport.

Another speaker was Mark Joseph O’Sullivan from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NIH). His presentation, titled “Sport is for children, not the other way around (where are we now, and where can we go?)”, criticised early specialisation in children’s and youth sports and addressed what he described as a misleading developmental trend.

Siubhéan Crowne presented her experience as both a practitioner and researcher in English football academies in a talk titled “Exploration of the Sport Psychology Programme of a Category 1 English Football Academy.” Her main conclusion was that football academies should not accept children under 13.

Martin Camiré delivered a presentation titled “Professionalisation in Youth Sport: Key Considerations and Future Directions.” Camiré is a Professor at the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa in Canada. His research has focused, among other things, on how sports participation can foster various aspects of development in children and adolescents.

The conference concluded with a panel discussion.